Poll: Catholic gay marriage support up

Support for gay marriage has ticked up over the last few months, particularly among Catholic voters, according to a new poll Friday.

Among Catholics, 54 percent back same-sex marriage, while 38 percent oppose it, the Quinnipiac University poll found. That’s a jump from December, when Catholic support for same-sex marriage was 49 percent to 43 percent.

Among all Americans, it’s a closer margin, with 47 percent supporting and 43 percent opposing. The pollsters noted that’s a dramatic reversal from their July 2008 survey, which found that 55 percent opposed same-sex marriage and 36 percent supported it. It’s also a slight rise in support since December, when Quinnipiac found 48 percent backed gay marriage and 46 percent opposed it.

Meanwhile, as the College of Cardinals prepares to select a new Pope, most American Catholics say that church leaders are out of touch with their views. Fifty-two percent of Catholics say the leaders out of touch, while 40 percent say they’re not.

More Catholic men said church leaders are out of touch than women did. Among men: 54 percent said church leaders were out of touch, 37 percent said they are not. Among women: 49 percent said church leaders were out of touch, 43 percent said they were not. In the above referenced polls, the remaining percentages were unsure or didn’t answer.

Fifty-five percent of Catholics want the new pope to take the church in a new direction while 38 percent do not. The rest didn’t answer or were unsure.

Quinnipiac pollsters telephone-surveyed 497 adult Catholics between Feb. 27 and March 4 and the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. The same-sex marriage question was asked of 1,944 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.